Out & About: What's happening iu the great outdoors

This fisherman landed a 30-plus pound redfish in the Banana River. Did you have a big catch recently? If so, submit a photo online at floridatoday.com in the reader photos section under fishing photos. Yours could make the paper!

FLW series opens on Lake Okeechobee

The Rayovac FLW Series is headed to Lake Okeechobee on Thursday for a three-day tournament with as many as 300 pros and co-anglers. It's the first of three stops in the Southeast Division.

Anglers will take off from C. Scott Driver Park, located on SR 78 in Okeechobee, at 7:30 a.m. daily. Weigh-ins will be held at the launch site beginning at 3 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Saturday's final weigh-in will be held at Gilbert Chevrolet in Okeechobee at 4 p.m. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public.

Pros will fish for a top award of $40,000 plus a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. Co-anglers will cast for a top award of a Ranger Z117 with 90-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $5,000 if Ranger Cup guidelines are met.

The Rayovac FLW Series consists of five divisions - Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the Rayovac FLW Series Championship.

The 2014 Rayovac FLW Series Championship is being held Oct. 30-Nov. 1 on Wheeler Lake in Rogersville, Ala.

License-free fishing days announced

The state of Florida introduced eight license-free fishing days for 2014.

These dates will fall on the same weekend days from year to year to allow anglers to plan fishing trips in advance, and businesses and nonprofit groups to create events around these fishing license holidays. Here are the dates:

License-free freshwater days for 2014 and beyond:

? First Saturday and Sunday in April

? Second Saturday and Sunday in June

License-free saltwater days for 2014 and beyond:

? First Saturday and Sunday in June

? First Saturday in September

? Saturday following Thanksgiving

First panther death in Collier County

Already, the first Florida panther death in 2014 has been reported by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) biologists who last week collected the remains of a male panther that recently had been spotted in the Golden Gate Estates neighborhood of South Florida's Collier County.

Because of an unusual white marking on this panther's left ear, biologists believe that the panther found dead is the same panther that had been seen lingering in yards around the neighborhood.

The FWC panther team, working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, had been closely monitoring the area since late November, as part of an ongoing effort to relocate the panther to a more suitable, less urban habitat.

A full necropsy will be conducted at the FWC's Wildlife Research Lab in Gainesville.

Floridians can help conservation of panthers by purchasing the Protect the Panther license tag at BuyaPlate.com. Proceeds from the license plate support the FWC's panther research and management efforts.

Ban on harvesting Goliath revisited

The possible future of South Florida fishing rules - including the latest information on Goliath grouper populations - goes before combined panels of federal and state fishery experts convening Jan. 7 to 9 in Key Largo.

Board members and staff from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council and the South Atlantic Council, along with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission scientists and managers, will consider possible ways to streamline fishing regulations specifically for South Florida waters.

It has been nearly a quarter of a century since a ban on legally harvesting a Goliath grouper - then known as a jewfish - was enacted in 1990.

Sightings and reports of more Goliath grouper have been increasing for years.

Recent fishing reports from the Keys include accounts of releasing more than a dozen Goliath grouper on one trip.

However, many biologists worry that allowing even a limited harvest of the slow-growing, territorial fish that can grow to more than 700 pounds could quickly reverse decades of gains.